A Lancashire business leader has said paying bumper bonuses to bankers is the only way to get lenders out of public ownership.
Paul Heathcote, the restaurateur and Lancashire Evening Post columnist, said he believed banks needed to pay bonuses to encourage the right calibre of people to their top brass.
He was speaking in his latest column for the lepbusinessweek supplement as it was revealed more than 100 executives at Britain’s biggest banks getting more than £1m in bonuses in the last year.
The figures including 428 from Barclays and 93 from Royal Bank of Scotland.
Mr Heathcote said: “I can understand how this upsets people when these are two of the banks which were bailed out by the taxpayer just a few years ago.
“I look at it a different way.
“There shouldn’t be a situation where banks are in public ownership to any extent, and the Government should be looking to get maximum value back for the taxpayer and get out.
“Whichever way you look at it, and however unpalatable it may be, you need the best people at the very top to ensure you get that payback, and you have to be willing to pay for those people.”
Read Paul Heathcote’s column in full in Tuesday’s Lancashire Evening Post.
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